A Considerable Liberation
by Lavender and Hay
Summary: Violet and Isobel enjoy a quiet evening without Denker and Spratt.


**My first foray into the world of Vi&Is. Hope you like it. **

"I must say," Violet remarked, after a period of comfortable silence, "It's a considerable liberation to have one evening in a while without Denker and Spratt quarrelling in every corner. Even if it does mean having to get up to fetch the warm blanket myself."

Isobel put down her cup of tea on the table beside her immediately and put out her hand, arresting Violet's wrist before she could raise her weight up using her stick.

"Don't you go!" she was in the middle of insisting, when Violet let out a gasp quite unlike anything Isobel had ever heard her give before.

"What is it?" she asked quickly, "Did I hurt you?"

"You have positively the coldest hands I've ever come across," Violet replied ruefully.

"And this comes from a woman who had an affair with a Russian," Isobel teased her, moving across to the armchair at the other side of the room where the warm blanket lay.

By the time she had turned around, Violet's face still bore a look of such comical shock that Isobel burst out laughing. With anyone else, she would have felt guilty that an almost innocent jibe had shocked them so much, but Violet was a special case, she remembered the merciless teasing when Lord Merton first started to take an interest.

"Really," she told her, still smiling, unfolding the blanket and handing it to Violet, "It's not as if Spratt or Denker is here to hear me in my insolence. And, yes, as it happens, Reginald did tell me several times that I have very cold hands."

Violet hummed in faint interest as she arranged the large blanket over her knees.

"Would you like a corner?" she asked, lifting one side up, offering Isobel to put her legs under it.

"Yes, alright," Isobel replied, shuffling over on the settee a little, adding, "If the servants really are out, I suppose we can let our hair down a little."

Sensing that Isobel was teasing her again, Violet replied.

"I'm just rather concerned about your circulation, my dear," she told her, "I fail to understand how someone who's as cold as that can still be up and walking about."

Isobel smiled, settling down beside her, leaning back against the sofa, relaxing enough for her arm to bump companionably against Violet's. Turning her body a little, Violet caught sight of the look on Isobel's face.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she enquired.

"It's funny," Isobel responded, "That's what I thought about you when we first met."

It took Violet a moment to grasp what she meant.

"That I was cold?" she asked.

The criticism had certainly been made before, she wasn't sure why it disconcerted her so much just at this moment.

"Yes," Isobel replied, still smiling softly. Her eyes fixed carefully on Violet's face, "I don't think that now."

As if to add force to her comforting words, her hand settled on Violet's, which rested over the blanket, in her lap. The reaction it actually got from Violet, though, was in fact another sharp grasp.

"Isobel, your hands!"

"Sorry," Isobel told her, retracting it quickly.

"No, my dear," Violet told her, "It's alright. I just wasn't expecting it."

And then Violet did something that Isobel was unprepared for. Firmly, almost as if bracing herself against the cold of Isobel's skin, she took hold of Isobel's hand again and drew it down under the warmth of the blanket, holding onto it there. Their joined hands were lodged in the space between one another's legs, so that they were each touching the other.

"There," Violet told her quietly, "That's much better, isn't it?"

Isobel nodded. She wasn't sure what to say. They had never touched each other like this before. It was not sexual per se, but it was undeniably close, and intimate.

It was Isobel now who was brought up short by Violet's actions.

"Violet-…." she murmured gently, omitting any other form of address or endearment, simply calling her by her name.

And it made her smile.

"Yes, Isobel, my dear?"

Isobel said nothing, just ran her tongue gently over her own lips, without thinking about it. She saw Violet's eyes spark, and she knew it was safe.

They each leant forwards slowly, their lips touching very gently, tenderly, slowly opening against one another, breathing into the warmth of each other's mouths. Under the blanket they were still holding hands tightly.

**End.**

**Please review if you have the time. **


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